Moon Over Kosovo

Cast (in sample)

LONY
VALIDOR
KUKLE

LONY and VALIDOR, in a foxhole in the middle of a long war. We see a bright light wend its way through the night sky.

LONY	What's that?
VALIDOR	That's a flare.
LONY	A flare?
VALIDOR	To signify.
LONY	Signify?
VALIDOR	Look: are you gonna repeat everything I say?
LONY	No, I -- I just have a few questions.
VALIDOR	Okay. Then. Okay. That's different. Go ahead. Ask. Ask them.
LONY	The flare.
VALIDOR	Yes.
LONY	About the flare.
VALIDOR	To sig-ni-fy!
VALIDOR	Signify what?
LONY	The bombs, dammit. The dropping bombs. The bombs you see. In front.
LONY	I don't see any.
VALIDOR	Nothing?
LONY	No, nothing. Nothing in front, nothing in back. Nothing.
VALIDOR	Look: you mean to tell me you see nothing? Really. Is that what you're saying? You see no bombs, no -- none of those houses over there, no -- no --
LONY	No. No nothing. I'm sorry. I only see you, and you don't look so good, I might add.
VALIDOR	Oh?
LONY	Yeah, you haven't shaved or something. You got this, like, five o'clock. And you look tired. Piqued. More than piqued -- you're past piqued. You've peaked past piqued!
VALIDOR	That you can see?
LONY	And the flare.
VALIDOR	You can see the flare.
LONY	The sky, the stars, some stars. Some dippers you know, myself, yourself, some dippers, your five o'clock, and the flare. But no... no, no -- houses, did you say?
VALIDOR	In the village!
LONY	The what?
VALIDOR	Oh no. Gotta get you some help. My God. My stars.
LONY	Stars?
VALIDOR	Have you ever seen stars?
LONY	Once.
VALIDOR	When?
LONY	When I was a kid.
VALIDOR	Good. So you once were that.
LONY	What?
VALIDOR	A child.
LONY	No.
VALIDOR	No?
LONY	I said -- you said -- you asked me if I once was a child. I said yes. That was my natural answer. My response.
VALIDOR	You weren't a child?
LONY	-- I remember being a child. You see, there're no pictures. Of my childhood. I mean, there're none left.
VALIDOR	Where are they?
LONY	Where've they gone? They were lost. In the war. Along with everything else. My mother. My father. Two sisters, a brother. All my family. Not a survivor among us... I'm next. I know I'm gonna be next.
VALIDOR	Now hold on --
LONY	No, I know. I know that. There are some things you know, and I know that. The next strike, the next round'll have my name on it.
VALIDOR	Well if you stay here, it might not happen.
LONY	Oh no, it will.
VALIDOR	This is a very good hole.
LONY	Really!
VALIDOR	This hole is so good, so deep, so cute -- it's a cute hole, look at what I've done with it!
LONY	Yes, I love what you've done.
VALIDOR	It's cozy, as bunkers go.
LONY	Is that? -- no! --
VALIDOR	What?
LONY	Are those heaps of dried mud stacked in the corner against that bank of stratified dirt?
VALIDOR	Kind of like my own personal space.
LONY	The make me think of --
VALIDOR	Home?
LONY	Barstools.
VALIDOR	Like to kick off my shoes after a hard day -- take a long swig from my thermos -- see, it's really a nice place to be, to stay, while everything up above is -- "shifting". See, I call it a shift. I really don't call it war, or even a fight. I just look on it as something that's shifting, something in the earth, and I'll just wait down here 'till it's over. Till it's all settled, till it all shifts back.
LONY	To what?
VALIDOR	To what it used to be.
LONY	Wasn't it always like this?
VALIDOR	No. I hear different. I remember different. My father tells me the sun was always out, if you got six, seven rainy days a month, that was a lot. And there were baseball diamonds and backstops here. That's what they used to do with their dirt, all of their dirt. They used to make it into ballfields. They used to play here. (Sings) "Oh there used to be a ball park -- right here?" You remember that song?
LONY	No.
VALIDOR	Before your time. See: there was a time, before this one. And we'll get there, we'll get back. They can't touch us here. They'll never find us.
LONY	But they have flares! Don't they have them? They have to find us. To sig-ni-fy.
VALIDOR	This is such a good deep hole! -- with no outward signs of its existence, to make the enemy virtually incapable of finding us. They can't find you here. Trust me. You and me, the both of us, we'll get out of here alive. I know it. I'm sure of it. I always have. I haven't left this hole in sixteen, seventeen years now. I live here. See this picture? This is my wife. This is my youngest.
LONY	Oh, she's fine! Very fine!
VALIDOR	Yeah, but she must've aged since the last time I saw her.
LONY	I'm sure she still looks great.
VALIDOR	That's what they tell me.
LONY	Who?
VALIDOR	The people I ask.
LONY	Who are these people?
VALIDOR	Friends. From above. They're everywhere. I get all my information from them. I get back pictures of her, and my kid. But I don't get to see them. But I hear they look good. That's what they tell me. My wife hasn't lost a thing. My kid's starting Little League. So you see. There really is nothing to fear. I'm sorry for all your losses, all that's happened to you. But to be honest, you're not the only one to suffer. But that doesn't mean it has to go on forever. You can be the first to survive. The first in your family -- !
	(Sound of flare shooting up.)
LONY	Oh God.
VALIDOR	You see that?
LONY	And what does it -- ?
VALIDOR	The bombs!
LONY	Tell me again!
VALIDOR	They signify the bombs!
LONY	Bombs?
VALIDOR	You don't see them?
LONY	No!
VALIDOR	Not the one right over -- there!
	(Sound of explosion, rocks their hole)
	Didn't see that?
	(Sound of explosion, rocks their hole.)
	Good thing I'm here!
	(Sound of explosion, rocks their hole.)
LONY	I'm scared!
VALIDOR	Don't be!
LONY	Has this happened before?
VALIDOR	Every day. All the time.
LONY	I guess I've been leading a sheltered life.
VALIDOR	That's what happens. One day you're in your mother's lap, the next you're all grown up and you have to fend for yourself. It's not easy!
	(Sound of explosion, rocks their hole.)
LONY	Oh, not again!
VALIDOR	Don't worry. You're here now.
LONY	It's God's work
VALIDOR	It's God who's gotten you here to this hole with me!
LONY	This is a good hole!
VALIDOR	Here we're safe! Here we're...free!
	(Sound of greater explosion rocks their hole. A soldier -- KUKLE -- jumps into it.)
	Hello!
KUKLE	God, it's murder out there.
VALIDOR	Who are you?
KUKLE	(Saluting.) First Seargent Rian Kukle, Second Division.
VALIDOR	Who are you saluting?
KUKLE	Sir!
LONY	(to VALIDOR) Oh, I like him.
VALIDOR	Put your hand down.
KUKLE	Sir!
VALIDOR	We're nobody.
LONY	(to KUKLE) You -- you're a soldier?
KUKLE	Aren't you?
VALIDOR	Do we look like soldiers?
KUKLE	But my coordinates show...
	(Takes out device, maps, in great confusion, checks them.)
VALIDOR	(Snatching device.) Let me see that!
LONY	Can you get CNN?
VALIDOR	This is a homing device of some nature. Obviously he has us pegged as some kind of military base.
KUKLE	All the other holes were filled. This is the only one that was open.
VALIDOR	Ah!
KUKLE	So of course I made my way here.
VALIDOR	We had the only vacancy.
LONY	You wanna know our rates?
VALIDOR	Not funny.
LONY	One needs a sense of humor in these times.
KUKLE	Oh, these times are bad. Very bad. Very, very bad. I've been out there. I see, I saw what was happening. What's happening is very bad. Very bad.
LONY	Can -- can I touch you? I've never touched a real live soldier before, someone in the battle.
VALIDOR	Be careful.
LONY	Just wanna touch.
VALIDOR	Be careful. We don't know him.
LONY	What don't we know?
VALIDOR	Well, who he is and where he's from, and if he's on our side or not.
LONY	What's our side?
VALIDOR	Don't know. Been so long. Don't even remember what the sides are.
KUKLE	Our side is winning, sir!
VALIDOR	Again with the sir.
KUKLE	That's why I'm here, sir! I've dropped in to tell you that you're to keep up the good fight. The fight is good, the war is winnable, the war is good, we're fighting the good war, the good war is winnable, all winnable wars are good. And this hole, this hole is very very good.
VALIDOR	(To LONY) See, I told you. That's exactly what I told you. This is a good hole. That's why he's here. News like that gets around.
KUKLE	I have reports, I have mail. I have come here with news from the home front, regarding your families.
LONY	Oh.
VALIDOR	See -- he -- he doesn't have family left. From the war. They were lost to the war.
LONY	I'm next.
VALIDOR	You're not next. You're here now. You're safe.
	(to KUKLE) Did you say you've brought news from the war? From the front, about our families?
KUKLE	Yes, I come bearing news-and fruit. Anyone want an orange?
	(HE takes out orange.)
VALIDOR	What did you say your name was again?
KUKLE	First Seargent Rian Kukle, First Div --
VALIDOR	I don't need the whole meshbucha -- just something for you to go by.
KUKLE	Oh. Then that would be Rian.
LONY	Rian.
VALIDOR	It's a nice name.
LONY	Can you peel this for me, Rian?
	(KUKLE begins peeling orange.)
KUKLE	(To VALIDOR.) Is he really an orphan?
VALIDOR	Orphaned from the war. Even worse, a little stupid from it. Can't see the bombs.
KUKLE	Ours or theirs?
VALIDOR	We have bombs?
KUKLE	(Obviously, having blundered.) No, no, we don't have bombs. Did I say we had bombs? What we don't have are bombs. We have no bombs. We're just the bombees, not the bombers. We would never have bombs. Not us. No bombs. No siree. This is as close as we get to having a bomb, this typical, stupid little orange. And does this little orange look like a bomb?
VALIDOR	Well. Yes. Now that you mention it.
KUKLE	Well, it may look like a bomb, but that doesn't mean it is a bomb. Here. I'll throw it.
VALIDOR	No!
KUKLE	What are you -- ?
VALIDOR	Give me that bomb!
	(HE grabs orange. Shields LONY.)
	Get into that corner!
	(HE handles orange like a grenade, bites off end of it, and prepares to throw, but he comes up with a mouthful of orange.)
	Not a bomb. Not a bomb. One hundred percent vitamin C. -- 'Less it's a 'C' bomb!
	(THEY all laugh. VALIDOR hands orange to LONY. HE addresses KUKLE.)
	Doesn't matter anyway. If it'd been a bomb, he wouldn't've been able to see it. That's how we would've known what it was.
KUKLE	Pity. In a way. When they fall, they're nicer than the flares. To look at.
VALIDOR	Oh, the flares are nice though.
LONY	(With a mouthful of orange.) Exquisite.
VALIDOR	Very pretty. That straight arrow of light falling.
LONY	(Clearly enunciated.) First time I saw the arrow: it was tonight. Just a minute ago, and I thought...I thought of God, I thought if God comes down to land, he's coming down in an arrow, in a flare.

End of sample from Moon Over Kosovo

Return to Sid Ross homepage